This invention relates to an applicator for pressure-sensitive adhesive fasteners and, more particularly, concerns a waist band fastener applicator for disposable diapers.
With the ever increasing acceptance of disposable diapers by consumers, and the corresponding increase in demand for such diapers, new materials and sophisticated manufacturing techniques and apparatus have been introduced to mass produce disposable diapers. Conventional disposable diapers are now provided with a fluid impervious backing sheet which eliminates the need for plastic or rubber pants and thus, increases the convenience in using such diapers. In recent years in order to further increase the convenience of disposable diapers as well as provide a safer means for fastening the diaper on an infant, pressure-sensitive adhesive fasteners have been substituted for the conventional safety pin.
Adhesive fasteners are usually supplied in pairs, one attached at each side portion of the water-impervious backing sheet near one end of the diaper so that as the diaper is conformed to an infant, a free end of each fastener may be attached to the corresponding opposite end of the diaper to secure about the infant. Various types of adhesive fasteners have been proposed in the past. In general, such adhesive fasteners are covered on their free adhesive ends by a release paper which is removed during the application of the diaper to the baby. The adhesive tape and the release paper are obtained during manufacture from separate rolls thereof. One method and apparatus for providing adhesive fasteners from separate rolls of adhesive tape and release paper is disclosed in Wierzba et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,191, issued Apr. 17, 1973.
Label stock, a laminar assembly of a substrate and a release paper adhered to each other by an adhesive layer and wound together on a single roll, is more economical than conventional adhesive tape and release paper and this invention provides a suitable method and apparatus for utilizing label stock in the preparation of adhesive tabs for diapers.